The year is 1960. My family have just moved to Bristol and taken over a pet shop. Although my mother intends to convert this into a furniture shop, she continues selling rabbits and budgerigars for a few months to get the hang of the selling thing.
I am a spotty youth aged 13 and a quarter. It is Saturday morning and I am working in the pet shop to help my mother out. A scruffy boy enters the shop, approaches the counter and says he has something to sell. He proceeds to put his hand in his pocket and pull out a white mouse. "How about sixpence?" he asks. We agree on threepence and I ask him to put it in the mouse cage so I don't have to handle it.
Fast forward 50 years to a different shop in Bristol - the 'Apple' computer store. There I am again, now a gentleman of mature years aged 63 and a quarter. I approach the counter. "I am having a problem with something I bought from you" I announce. I then put my hand in my pocket and pull out a white mouse.
“The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.” - Ecclesiastes.
